What’s Got Groupon’s Goat?

GRPN plunging Wednesday on big volume but little news

Wednesday’s declines in stocks like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) show that investors are remaining glum on the tech sector, but one stock is getting especially hard-hit: Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN).

So far in today’s trading, GRPN is down more than 8% to about $4.10, putting the stock close to its 52-week lows. More importantly, that’s coming on thick volume of 28 million — more than double its daily average …

… on next to no news.

Things have been fairly quiet at Groupon for the past few months; traditionally a good sign, as the company has a penchant for dropping bombshells that get investors in a tizzy.

The only piece of news out right now: Groupon has ginned up some controversy with daily deals related to Hurricane Sandy, some of which have been criticized for their tact. For example, the company sent out a deal to New York City citizens with the subject line: “International Dinner in the Dark.”

Not exactly tasteful, but seemingly unlikely to be the push behind such a serious run on the stock.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPOPlaybook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. He is also the author of “How to Create the Next Facebook.” Follow him on Twitter at@ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.